Instagram Confirms Quality Reduction for Videos – Here's the Reason Behind It

Have you noticed your Instagram videos losing quality over time? You’re not alone. Adam Mosseri , CEO of Instagram, recently confirmed that the platform purposefully reduces the quality of videos that don’t receive substantial engagement .

In an Instagram Stories Q&A session, Mosseri explained that the quality reduction affects all video types—Reels, Stories, and longer uploads. The platform prioritizes encoding resources for videos with high traffic, which typically attract more engagement from a larger audience.

This conversation sparked on Threads after a user shared a video of Mosseri addressing the query: why do older Stories saved as Highlights appear in a downgraded quality? Mosseri clarified, “Instagram algorithms automatically lower the quality of older Stories and Reels that haven’t accumulated many views.” This move helps allocate processing power to videos that garner consistent attention.

As a result, content from smaller creators may seem lower in quality, especially after the initial engagement wave dies down. According to Mosseri, this quality drop typically occurs several days to weeks after posting.

While this approach aims to optimize the platform’s processing capabilities, it has raised concerns. Many users are asking for more transparency, specifically about the view threshold that keeps a video’s quality intact. “Our system works at an aggregate level, not based on individual viewers,” Mosseri noted, explaining that higher engagement generally means higher video quality . It’s a “sliding scale” that allocates more CPU-intensive encoding and larger storage to popular creators.

For smaller creators worried about competing with bigger accounts, Mosseri mentioned that viewer analytics focus more on content engagement than video resolution. He emphasized that the quality reduction is minimal and is unlikely to affect viewer experience significantly.